Environment committee  Yes, it's a good example of that, and the strange thing is that we already pay for that. There's a tax on everything you buy that helps the producers recycle it. You actually pay for the recycling, so how about you pay more for something that is really not recyclable and you pay less for something that can go into Merlin's machine there and can be done?

Environment committee  Let's first of all know what we're buying. People are making the standards, but we need the government. All the industries are going, “We want the federal government to help us.” The municipalities need you too. We need to continue this conversation.

Environment committee  Okay. Quickly, plastics don't like to be mixed. There are about seven types. Types one and two are very popular. We can separate them and we can sell them, but for types three, four, five and six—soft plastics—all of that is mumble-jumble. It's stuck together. It has no value because we cannot sort it out.

Environment committee  I think we need to ban certain plastics that are very hard to recycle, like number five and maybe number three. I'm not an expert, but we should take a better look at this. For number seven, where everything is combined with aluminum, it's very difficult. We should stick to number ones and number twos, and we should....

Environment committee  I agree with the ban—I feel funny being here today talking about what I say in private—but when you talk about banning straws, that's great, but it is so little. It is so little. We have so much more to do. Canada is a producer of oil. We are chemical experts. We can do this. We can be the forerunners in this circular economy based on plastics.

Environment committee  What I really would like the government to do is impose a recycling percentage. I think a 30% recycling content imposed on all packaging in Canada would create a much, much bigger shift in our economy than just banning. Yes to banning the toxic plastics around number three. Number five is not that great, and some number sevens.

Environment committee  I think we need EPR, but we also need, combined with EPR, the deposit system where people get money back. That is huge. You get good-quality plastics and you get lots of it. I was in your place for different commissions for Montreal, and usually the industry is against it. The producers say, “No, no, no, the deposit system is no good.

Environment committee  You can easily ban certain things, no problem. There are certain things you don't need. If you go to a restaurant, and you have takeout, you have all these things. If you know you're paying 20¢, 30¢, or 40¢ for that, you will change, and you won't do it. You will bring your plate.

Environment committee  On a municipal level, we're kind of stuck. We're stuck running recycling plants that at the end can't sell their things. In terms of looking at how to solve municipal issues, well, I'm always looking at the federal government. That's why I'm so happy to be here. If we do it in just a small way, such as just in my borough, or just in Montreal—we banned plastic bags, and I was on that commission—it's not the most efficient thing.

Environment committee  Thank you for your question, Ms. Pauzé. No, absolutely not. We need to go much further. It's a drop in the bucket. The thousands of containers in grocery stores are also single-use containers. Forks and spoons come to mind, of course, but juice and shampoo bottles are also only used for a few weeks before being thrown away.

Environment committee  Absolutely. I went to many different conferences and I heard Canadian Tire and Loblaws saying that it's a nightmare. There are different regulations in Quebec that we have to comply with for all our products on the shelves. It's different in Ontario and it's different in Vancouver.

Environment committee  I'm sorry.

Environment committee  Okay.

Environment committee  Hello, everyone. First of all, thank you for inviting me today. I'm honoured to be here. Actually, I'm thrilled to be able to talk about plastics. I'm a borough mayor, but I'm completely fascinated by the whole Canadian plastics industry. I represent the greater Montreal area at National Zero Waste Council, where I co-chaired the plastics advisory panel with Andrew Marr, who is part of Metro Vancouver.

Environment committee  Okay. I'm sorry. We need to impose recycled content in packaging on the Canadian market. We need a packaging standard, and we need to define corresponding eco-fees. We need to ban certain products and expand deposit systems, and we must implement extended producer responsibility nationwide in a coherent and harmonized fashion.